Success-N-Life If you turned on your TV at night in the 1980s,
there was a good chance you'd flip to one of Robert Tilton's late-night infomercials.
His show, Success-N-life, brought in $80 Million per year preaching prosperity Gospel.
It was so successful that it aired on all 235 American television markets through the
80s and 90s.
Tilton eventually went from being one of the wealthiest Televangelists of his time to being
a parody of himself.
Just how did he fall all the way from the top?
Humble Beginnings Tilton was born in 1946 in Mckinney, Texas.
He attended Cooke County Junior College before heading off to Texas Technological University.
Before life on the little screen, Tilton was a good Catholic nobody.
Tilton's conversion to evangelical ministry began the following year after he married
his first wife, Martha, which would later dissolve after a series of lawsuits.
In 1974, Tilton and his family hit the road on a preaching road trip.
His career had officially begun.
He preached to small crowds throughout Texas and Oklahoma.
He later settled in Dallas with his family in 1976, where he built the Word of Faith
Family Church, a small charismatic church in Farmers Branch, Texas.
He started a local television program known as "Daystar" through the church, but nothing
ever became of it.
We don't believe there's any relation between Tilton's Daystar TV in the 70s and the Daystar
TV of today.
Well, other than how both entities scam gullible viewers of their hard-earned cash.
Tilton needed a stroke of inspiration, so he decided he'd go on a pilgrimage, like when
Jesus spent forty days in the desert.
However, Tilton's pilgrimage in the desert was a vacation to Hawaii.
He did find the inspiration he was looking for when he discovered Dave Del Dotto's get-rich-quick
infomercials.
Dotto was known for his hour-long segments showing off his luxurious life in Hawaii and
pedaling his get-rich-quick real estate books.
Tilton returned from his vacation—sorry—pilgrimage—and revamped Daystar into a late-night infomercial
named Success-N-Life.
He got by with a little help from his friend Herman Beebe, a Dallas banker and fraudster
with rumored ties to organized crime.
Beebe's $1.3 Million loan got Success-in-Life off the ground in 1981.
The Vow Tilton would ask his viewers for "vows" through
his show and claimed that all the bad things in your life resulted from sin.
Tilton's website, which is still active to this day, explained that to be blessed by
God in the future, you need to make a vow to him now through his ministry.
Tilton emphasized that an effective Vow goes beyond your natural resources, meaning we
should give all we have and even borrow from friends.
After all, this is a vow to God.
The following is published on his website, "I don't need much faith to vow $100 if I
have $2,000 in a savings account.
But, if I can barely pay my bills, then a $100 vow will stretch my faith indeed."
Tilton never shied away from asking his followers for more money.
The average donation was about $1,000, but Tilton claimed God wanted more.
He'd ask people to give him practically everything they had and that God would take care of their
day-to-day needs.
For someone that believed so much in giving all you have, he sure didn't take his own
advice.
Tongue Speaking Tilton said and did some outrageous things
during his infomercials.
He'd go on complete tangents in which he'd "speak in tongues" to perform Miracles on
TV.
No, he wasn't speaking some form of ancient Latin or demonic language.
He was speaking nonsense words comparable to a sputtering muffler on a dying car.
He'd make outlandish claims that he'd cured dwarfism and mysterious intestinal problems.
Thankfully, through the power of money, television, and absurdity, he healed learning disabilities
in children.
How did anybody take this guy seriously?
The show ran testimonials of viewers who gave to his ministry and received miracles in return,
a practice that would serve as the basis for a lawsuit from his donors later on.
But as crazy as that all seems, enough people believe Tilton to fork over $80 Million per
year.
Was it because of the fact that he’d assure his viewers time and time again that he “wasn’t
making this up?”
The popularity of his show shot Tilton to the top, and the World of Faith Church grew
to 8,000 members.
While 8,000 might not be much by today's standard, it was a lot back then in the 80s.
Other than preaching, Tilton is a 'successful" author.
Some of his books include God's Law of Success, The Power to Create Wealth, You Shall Eat
the Riches of Gentiles, and, our absolute favorite, How to Pay Your Bills Supernaturally.
Who knew supernatural money was an accepted payment method?
Tilton was living the good life between his book sales, donations, and cushy $200,000
salary.
So the question begs.
How did such a successful preacher hit rock bottom?
“The Apple of God’s Eye” The early 90s brought the beginning of the
end for Tilton.
He was accused of being a con artist—someone who'd manipulate his followers for personal
gain.
He pocketed his tax-exempt donations and dared to ask for more.
Fellow Televangelists Jim Swaggart and Jim Bakker had already fallen from grace.
Tilton was next on the diving board.
PrimeTime Live, a popular show hosted by Diane Sawyer, was ready to push him off.
Much of ABC's research was derived from a guy named Ole Anthony, who heads the Dallas-based
Trinity Foundation, a self-described watchdog of televangelists.
Anthony played the undercover role of a Dallas Pastor looking to break into the Televangelism
game.
The ABC news team portrayed Anthony's media consultants.
He and ABC set up a meeting with Tilton's media team and learned just how deep Tilton's
scheming ran.
Apparently, his mailing campaigns ran through a slick marketing company called Response
Media.
Jim Moore, the director of Response Media, had no idea that he was about to divulge the
full spectrum of Tilton's mail campaigns on hidden camera.
Basically, Tilton would send "gimmicks" to people on his mailing list and request something
back.
Of course, that "something" was money.
According to Moore, Tilton was "doing far better than anybody knew."
Moore did refuse to disclose how much Bakker paid him to handle his dirty mail.
However, in a ditch effort to hook Anthony into signing with Response Media, Moore disclosed
what happens with all the letters.
Tilton never touches them.
Instead, they get sent right to the bank where they're opened, and any money is deposited
into Tilton's account.
Then Tilton gets the letters.
But come on, do you think Tilton was reading all those letters?
Ole' Anthony didn't think so either.
Anthony and the ABC team went dumpster diving outside Tilton's banks and found tens of thousands
of discarded prayer cards.
The steaming pile of garbage was broadcast in a segment called "The Apple of God's Eye"
on PrimeTime Live in 1991.
Sawyer went on air in a follow-up to the broadcast and talked about more discard prayer cards
they'd found.
Over thirty days, Anthony and the undercover team found dumpsters full of prayer requests
on 14 separate occasions.
The end was near for Tilton.
At a 1991 Press Conference, Anthony set up an elaborate display of discarded prayer cards
he humorously dubbed "Tilton's Wheel of Fortune."
Allegations against Tilton started pouring out.
Those who worked for Tilton claimed he had means of monitoring their calls, and they
weren't allowed to talk to a caller for more than seven minutes, no matter how "badly"
they needed a prayer.
Money was the number one goal, and workers were instructed to get money from callers
first and foremost.
Tilton on Tilt Tilton went on the defensive after the airing
of "The Apple of God's Eye," and Anthony's "Wheel of Fortune" made a mockery of his name.
On November 22, Tilton aired an episode of Success-N-Life titled "PrimeTime Lies."
Tilton claimed that the entire thing was a set-up.
ABC had stolen the prayer cards from his church and planted them in dumpsters for what he
called "Sensational Camera Shots."
He claims to have prayed over every card received, so much so that the ink went to his brain
and triggered two minor strokes.
Clearly, the only thing that went to Tilton's head was the money.
The Lawsuits piled up.
One woman was awarded $1.5 Million after it was revealed her donation, which was intended
for a family crisis center, went into Tilton's wallet.
The crisis center was never built, nor were there ever plans to build one.
Sadly, Tilton got the judgment reversed by a team of savvy lawyers.
Tilton's Downfall Tilton's viewership numbers reduced drastically
in the wake of all the scandals and lawsuits.
Texas Attorney General Dan Morales attempted to strip Tilton's church of its non-profit
status and transfer ownership to the state.
The decline of Success-N-life led to the end of his 25-year marriage, who had been administrative
head of the Word of Faith Family Church and World Outreach Center.
The Afterlife Tilton bounced around a lot after "The Apple
of God's Eye."
In 1994, Tilton tried to revive his TV success with a new show called Pastor Tilton.
On Pastor Tilton, everyone's favorite disgraced preacher would perform what's called Demon
Blasting.
What's Demon Blasting, you ask?
For Tilton, it involved screaming and shouting as loud as he could at someone believed to
be possessed by demons.
We're pretty sure the Warrens would have something to say about that, as well as the Vatican.
The show was a colossal failure and, as a result, didn't see the dawn of the new year.
Success-N-Life Revival In 1997, Tilton got up to his old tricks again
when he revived Success-N-Life in Fort Lauderdale.
The once-dead show aired on BET during a two-hour nightly block of religious programming called
BET inspiration.
However, most of the show recycled old footage from the early 90s and testimonials from the
80s.
Tilton officially dissolved the World of Faith Church in 1996, and the building was bought
by the town and eventually demolished in 2003.
Today, Tilton is still active on Facebook, where his page has around thirty five hundred
likes.
However, the link to his website brings you right back to his old stance on vowing.
Cough up that stimulus money, folks, because God needs it more than you do.
But don't worry, he'll make it up to you later.
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